The “COVID-19 & Food Safety Global Summit” was organized by the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). David Tharp, executive director of IAFP, and Bill Marler, managing partner at Marler Clark LLP PS, welcomed attendees from around the world to the webinar.

The first session involved a global perspective followed by regional specific presentations from Europe, the United States and China.

Markus Lipp, head of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Safety and Quality Unit, said there has been no observation of transmission of COVID-19 through food.

“COVID-19 is not considered to be a food safety issue. What we have seen is trade disturbances through import and export blocks by various countries. There are a number of other events that threaten food security and our supply chains.”

Unlike any other crisis
Lipp said there have been coronavirus cases in a range of settings including food workers in informal markets and meat packing plants in the U.S. and Germany. Because these people are ill and have to stay home, this is a reason for disruption of food supply chains.

“The end of current social protection plans and increased social assistance programs will put a huge strain on the budgets of countries around the world. Rising unemployment, income loss and rising food costs will jeopardize access in the developing and developed countries,” he said.

“The current situation is unlike any other food or health crisis in modern times as simultaneously the supply and demand part of the economy received shocks that were global in nature. These are challenging times. Our food security is at risk for people in developed and developing countries, however there is a larger impact on developing countries. We need to work together to make sure food security will remain for everybody.”

In June, the World Bank estimated COVID-19 could push anywhere from 71 million to 100 million people into extreme poverty in 2020. The United Nations predicted 49 million extra people may fall into extreme poverty due to the crisis. The World Trade Organization (WTO) estimated in April that world merchandise trade in 2020 could fall by as much as 32 percent.

Risk-based controls and FDA’s response
Gudrun Gallhoff, Minister Counsellor for health and food safety, Delegation of the European Union to China, said goods, packages and other surfaces have not shown to be a particular risk of COVID-19.

“A risk-based approach allocates resources to high risk and maximum impact activities. This is important with COVID-19 as you have to balance new risks with existing ones. This includes rearranging processes or taking special measures if the disease is spreading as people cannot work in the normal way.”

Gallhoff said the biggest risk to food safety for COVID-19 is the neglect of planned control activities.

“While you have to always prioritize food safety controls you must appreciate you cannot inspect in the same way. Many of us are doing inspections via audio and you have to adapt your processes accordingly. There might be new risks arising through process modifications and substitution of ingredients.”

Gallhoff said this may compromise food security as certain foods and ingredients are not there anymore.

“Supply chains are blocked. In Europe we had this problem particularly in the beginning of COVID-19. Just adding other certification requirements or stopping certain products at the border is not the way of dealing with it. So we have to work in a flexible manner keeping the well-established processes we had before as far as we can but introducing new ways of dealing with the challenge by reacting on the knowledge we get about the disease and about the changed resources.”

Communication is also a challenge, according to Gallhoff.

“We have to introduce transparency of why certain methods are taken and what reasons are behind them to convince people that things have to be done this way under the current circumstances. It is also important to document the changed ways to learn, so that one sees a measure was successful or it wasn’t successful and you have to change it again. We learn every day new information about how the virus transmits, we hope to learn where it comes from and then we can prevent pandemics in the future with these insights.”

LeeAnne Jackson, CFSAN Food Lead – 2019 novel coronavirus FDA incident management group, said the pandemic has been an unprecedented challenge for the agency.

“Unprecedented consumer demand and changes in distribution patterns have led to temporary spot shortages of certain commodities. The temporary closure of restaurants, schools, and entertainment venues left many food producers without their normal paths to the marketplace resulting in a surplus of food that needed to be diverted to grocery and retail settings,” she said.

“During our response to the pandemic one of the lessons we’ve learned is a crisis of such unprecedented magnitude requires federal, state and local governments, the food industry and academia working together. We are encouraged to see that for the most part food facilities and farms under FDA’s jurisdiction continue to operate and we do not anticipate the Defense Production Act authority will need to be invoked.”

In March, FDA temporarily postponed routine on-site surveillance inspections.

“We’ve continued to conduct mission critical inspections when there has been a potential risk to public health. We’ve also been working to determine the best way and most appropriate time to resume safe domestic inspections and other associated activities by FDA staff,” said Jackson.

Market outbreak in China
Chen Junshi, chief scientific advisor at the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, discussed a COVID-19 outbreak at Xinfadi agricultural market which involved 368 people.

“There are two possible sources of transmission. One is from people to people and the other is from food to people. We only know it is not from local people based on DNA sequencing of the virus. The other possible source is food to person transmission because there were multiple positive samples in this market including the chopping board for salmon, raw food samples including meat and environmental samples. Investigations are still going on, there is no direct evidence of either possible source.”

The impact involved closure of Xinfadi market and all seafood and meat being destroyed. Sale of salmon and other seafood by supermarkets and restaurants in Beijing was suspended while sampling and testing on imported seafood and meat began. Confusing media reports led to consumer concern about buying, cooking and eating seafood. Nucleic acid positive samples from an Ecuador white shrimp package added to the weight of speculation, said Chen.

He said effective communications from the beginning of any crisis is needed and regulatory control measures should be science-based.

“Further research is needed to determine whether there are live SARS-CoV-2 virus in nucleic acid positive food samples as well as the amount of live virus on the contaminated food to establish the relationship between the contaminated food and disease.”

Session two of the event featured Donald Schaffner, Ben Chapman and Lawrence Goodridge while John Donaghy, Michelle Danyluk, Ruth Petran, Sharon Brunelle and Kalmia E. Kniel took part in the third panel.

The summit was partially sponsored by Seattle law firm Marler Clark LLP. Founding partner Bill Marler is publisher of Food Safety Website.

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Scientists led by EFSA have developed a way to judge possible effects of climate change on emerging risks for food safety. It includes scoresheets that characterize potential impacts climate change could have on a range of food safety-related issues.

The approach was developed in the CLEFSA (CLimate change and Emerging risks for Food SAfety) project. Experts from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, EuroCigua project, European Environment Agency, Food and Agriculture Organization, Joint Research Centre, University of California, UN Environment Programme, and the World Health Organization took part.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations attempted to quantify current and anticipated food safety issues associated with climate change in a report published earlier this year. In 2019, the World Health Organization warned climate change was likely to have a considerable impact on food safety.

Effect on occurrence and intensity
In 2018, EFSA launched the CLEFSA project and ran a survey to get insights on emerging issues potentially affected by climate change. More than 600 people responded, providing more than 240 issues. These points have been added to by a literature search, EFSA’s Emerging Risks Networks, and information from EFSA activities.

Sensitivity of germs, potentially toxin-producing microorganisms and other pests suggests that climate change could affect occurrence and intensity of some foodborne diseases. Surface seawater warming and increased nutrients input leads to the profusion of toxin-producing algae causing outbreaks of seafood contamination.

Environmental factors such as temperature, rainfall, humidity levels and soil can help explain the distribution and survival of bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter. Presence of norovirus in oysters from sewage runoffs caused by heavy rainstorm and flooding may also be linked to the increasing frequency of extreme weather. Climate change is considered a driver of changes in the occurrence of mycotoxins in Europe. It may also impact food hygiene, in primary production, storage, transport and distribution.

In a report on the project, experts said climate change is likely to drive the emergence of new hazards and increase the exposure or the susceptibility to known hazards.

“Climate change and its implications for food safety demand complex scientific work, given the number and diversity of hazards to be considered, the large uncertainties involved and the interconnections between the different areas,” according to the report.

Biological hazards and contaminants
The CLEFSA project analyzed more than 100 emerging issues for food and feed safety, plant and animal health, and nutritional quality and characterized 14 of them. It used a reference period from 1981 to 2010 and a near-future period from 2021 to 2050. The approach involved three phases: identification, characterization and analysis.

Issues related to biological hazards to human health included anisakis, Toxoplasma gondii, Trichinella, Cryptosporidium, Yersinia, Listeria, E. coli, norovirus and Campylobacter. No issues with extremely low or high impact were identified in the near-future climate scenario. Likelihood of the issues in the future ranges from very high for Vibrio spp. to very low for Echinococcus spp.

No issues with extremely low or high impact were identified for contaminants under the near-future climate scenario. Issues included Ciguatoxins, Tetrodotoxin, Deoxynivalenol and zearalenone.

“The wide variety of issues identified and characterized in this report emphasizes the need for policymakers and other relevant players in the food system to consider adjusting surveillance and monitoring to prepare for emerging risks caused by climate change,” according to the report.

Registration for the virtual information session on Oct. 8 opens soon and is limited to 500 participants or those who sign up by Sept. 30, which ever comes first.

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The event, annually set in the first week of May, was postponed earlier this year because of the coronavirus outbreak. It was rescheduled for Oct. 19-22 in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, IL. Yesterday, however, the organizers said the COVID-19 pandemic offered too many chances for infections at an in-person event.

“Given the continued uncertainty around travel and the importance of health and safety for the entire food safety community, the difficult decision has been made to transition the upcoming in-person Food Safety Summit event in Rosemont, IL, to a fully virtual event Oct. 19-22, 2020,” said Scott Wolters, CEO of BNP Media, producers of the Summit.

The Summit is set to start with a session on “COVID-19: The New Normal for the Food Industry.” The four-day event will offer educational sessions along with presentations from exhibitors in the Solutions Stage and Tech Tent as well as networking with attendees.

The educational portions of the summit are planned to offer four two-hour workshops and 21 one-hour sessions. Four general sessions are on the agends. They include the keynote presentation by Will Daniels, president of produce division, IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group, who will discuss “Back to Basics: Consumer Focused Food Safety.” In addition, the Summit’s annual “Town Hall” discussion with leaders from the FDA, AFDO, CDC and USDA and a general session focused on “Foodborne Illness Outbreak Mock Criminal Trial – A View from the Jury Box” featuring Shawn Stevens, Food Industry Counsel LLC, will be offered.

Daily, from noon to 2:30 p.m. CDT, the virtual exhibit hall will be open.  Attendees will have the opportunity to attend live sessions from the Solutions Stage and hear from technology companies in Tech Tent presentations. From 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. CDT the education and networking will continue. BNP Media is working with virtual events platform Intrado to deliver this learning experience.

Those who wish to only participate in the virtual exhibit hall and the general session each day can attend for free. All current Summit attendee registrations will be moved over to the virtual Food Safety Summit. Event organizers will contact those registered attendees with more information.

The virtual Summit is $299 to attend with the early bird rate, which expires on Aug. 31. Those who pay to attend the summit will have complete access to the entire platform, including virtual exhibit booths, all live and on-demand education sessions, the ability to participate in group discussions and networking events with colleagues and speakers.

Registration is now open at www.foodsafetysummit.com.

The agenda follows:

A European project involving foodborne zoonoses research held its annual meeting virtually recently because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The second annual scientific meeting of the One Health European Joint Program (OHEJP) on foodborne zoonoses, antimicrobial resistance and emerging threats was planned for Prague in the Czech Republic, but the outbreak meant the in-person part was cancelled.

Organizers decided to host the meeting online with oral and poster presentations. Read part one of this article summarizing these presentations from the three-day event.

Oral presentations
Gina M. Duggan of Teagasc, investigated the shedding dynamics of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC).

Ireland has the highest rate of human STEC cases in the EU. The study evaluated STEC shedding in Irish sheep and examined potential risk factors underpinning shedding dynamics, as well as STEC serogroups, O157 and O26. Results found low levels of O157 and O26 super shedders in sheep for slaughter but a high level of STEC carriage overall.

Gianni Lo Iacono, of the University of Surrey, presented information on how the weather impacts Campylobacteriosis, as seasonality is poorly understood.

Using data from England and Wales, steep increases in incidence in early summer and inter-annual variations were associated with temperature, relative humidity, and day length. Risk was highest for relative humidity between 75 to 80 percent and maximum temperature 14 to 16 degrees C (57 to 61 degrees F).

Marieke Opsteegh of RIVM talked about a literature review to summarize studies from Europe on Toxoplasma gondii source attribution.

Expert elicitation indicated food as a more important source than soil and water. Quantitative risk assessments only addressed meatborne transmission. In patient reports, presumed sources were well water, contact with cats, unpasteurized goat milk, and different types of undercooked meat, however strong evidence for the most probable source was generally lacking.

The “TOXOSOURCES” project will perform a multi-country quantitative risk assessment, including both meatborne and environmental exposure to Toxoplasma gondii.

Poster presentations
Anna Czubkowska, from the National Veterinary Research Institute in Poland, assessed the occurrence of bacterial foodborne pathogens in raw cow’s milk in the country.

A total of 100 samples of raw cow bulk-tank milk from different dairy farms was collected in 2019. Yersinia enterocolitica was found in 24 percent of tested samples. Listeria monocytogenes was detected in 14 percent of tests. Campylobacter jejuni at 4 percent and one isolate of E. coli O157 were also identified.

Kathrin Hauser, from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, investigated the Klebsiella pneumoniae colonization of six healthy people during one year by analyzing one stool sample per week. In total 80 Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates from five participants were obtained.

Two individuals shared identical Klebsiella pneumoniae subtypes several times. This highlights the potential role of food as a reservoir to humans, as shared meals could be identified between the two participants in the corresponding time frame.

Violeta Di Marzio, from IZSAM in Italy, looked at multi-drug resistant (MDR) Klebsiella pneumoniae in chicken legs, ready to eat (RTE) salads, and carrots.

A total of 60 samples of chicken legs, RTE salads and carrots purchased in different retailers were examined. Ten Klebsiella pneumoniae strains were isolated in RTE salads, 54 strains detected in chicken legs and four in carrots. The percentage of MDR strains in chicken legs was significantly higher than the other sample types.

Exchanging signals of zoonotic events in Europe was the subject of a poster by Maria Nöremark, from the National Veterinary Institute in Sweden.

Sharing signals of zoonotic events early may be key to understand that separate cases are part of an outbreak and ensure that sectors such as public health, food safety and animal health at relevant local, regional, central or international levels become involved.

Notifiable diseases reporting is regulated but for some endemic or emerging pathogens and events other factors may trigger a signal, such as an unexpected increase of cases.

In six countries, interviews were held with professionals who receive and share signals of potential zoonotic events. Preliminary findings show informal contacts were very important and knowing someone in person facilitates signaling. A fear of overreaction from other sectors was described when signals were shared anonymously. Well-functioning and non-user-friendly computerized systems were described, as were legal barriers for sharing data.

A poster by Thomas Haverkamp, of the Norwegian Veterinary institute, explained detection of Campylobacter in broiler production using metagenomic analysis of air samples. Results showed that Campylobacter detection was feasible using shotgun metagenomics of air filter samples.

Laura C. Gonzalez Villeta, of the University of Surrey, had a poster on understanding the association between the most influential weather parameters – except temperature – and incidence of salmonellosis. Understanding why Salmonella incidence is conditioned to certain weather variables would have practical public health applications. Researchers will use models and develop a tool to predict likelihood of infection based on known weather variations prior to an infection occurring.

Pikka Jokelainen, from SSI in Denmark, is part of the TOXOSOURCES project on the parasite Toxoplasma gondii that runs until 2022. The consortium will look at the contributions of different sources, such as meat and ready-to-eat fresh produce, of Toxoplasma gondii infection to get the most robust estimates possible to inform risk managers and policy makers.

A poster from Beata Lachtara, of the National Veterinary Research Institute, gave an overview of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from food and associated production environments in Poland.

The 138 Listeria strains tested were collected during 2013 to 2019 from RTE food, raw meat and production environments across Poland. Results showed the population structure of Listeria was diverse. Seven different sequence types were identified among the tested strains that were grouped into three clonal complexes.

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The global annual initiative on June 9, established by the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF), promotes accreditation including some related to food safety issues.

This year’s theme focuses on how such work supports food safety and boosts the confidence of consumers, suppliers, purchasers and specifiers in the quality and safety of food.

Accreditation helps ensure competent and impartial inspection, certification and testing services in local, national and international food chains. World Accreditation Day 2019 looked at the role of accreditation in supply chains.

Layer of assurance
In a joint statement, Xiao Jianhua, chair of IAF, and Etty Feller, head of ILAC, said accreditation helps improve food safety.

“It does this across the whole of the food supply chain from farm to fork, through food production, processing and packaging, storage and transportation, to retail and catering, helping build layers of assurance in the supply chain,” they say.

“Accreditation has a crystal-clear objective: it aims to assure businesses, end users and regulators that a conformity assessment body (CAB), such as a certification or inspection body, testing, calibration or medical laboratory, has the required technical competence and operates impartially. This competence is assessed by accreditation bodies against international standards and requirements.”

There is an international aspect to food and water production as ingredients and product parts may come from several countries, requiring more proofs of conformity to meet requirements of importing economies.

Accreditations awarded by IAF members include food safety schemes such as FSSC 22000, Global GAP Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA), International Featured Standards (IFS), and ISO 22000.

Close to World Food Safety Day
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO) and World Trade Organization (WTO), have previously highlighted the human impact of foodborne infections.

Jianhua and Feller said accreditation aims to support a reduced burden of disease through improving the performance of organizations in the food supply chain.

“Accreditation is used across the globe to help meet this goal: from the use of accredited certification in Australia through the PrimeSafe scheme for meat and seafood supply; to the European Union using the accreditation of laboratories to support food security in Europe; to accredited inspection to help commercial catering establishments deliver safer food in France.”

World Accreditation Day 2020 comes just two days after the second World Food Safety Day on June 7. A video for the former by ILAC and IAF can be viewed here.

World Food Safety Day (WFSD) will draw attention and action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.

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The summit had been set for May 4-7 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, in a Chicago suburb. Organizers set the new dates as Oct. 19-22 at the same location.

This year marks the 22nd annual meeting of food safety regulators, academics and affiliated businesses.

“The safety and the wellbeing of everyone who attends the summit is paramount and with this unprecedented situation unfolding, we have a responsibility to our customers, our guests and our colleagues to provide a safe place for our exhibitors, attendees, and speakers to interact and communicate face-to-face,” said Scott Wolters, chief events officer of the event producer, BNP Media.

In a few weeks updates and other information about the summit will be posted on the event website at www.foodsafetysummit.com, according to a statement released by BNP Media.

Exhibitors and attendees will be contacted directly from BNP staff about details of the move. For exhibitors who have questions about the new dates and space contact Kim Hansen at hansenk@bnpmedia.com with any questions. For attendees who have questions, contact the registration staff at fss@executivevents.com.

“Our thoughts are with all of those currently impacted by Coronavirus. The Food Safety Summit annual conference and expo is an important event for the food safety industry, and on behalf of the Educational Advisory Board, we are pleased BNP Media is able to reschedule,” said Gary Ades, chair of the Summit Educational Advisory Board and president of G&L Consulting. 

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Yesterday a top public health official said the virus, also being called COVID-19, is 10 times more deadly than regular seasonal flu viruses.

“Bottom line, it’s going to get worse,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said while testifying before members of Congress Wednesday at a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

One action local and state governments are taking is the banning of events larger than certain numbers. In Washington state the top number is 250. In California groups of up to 1,000 are allowed.

Some large gatherings such as music festivals like the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin have been cancelled or rescheduled for much later in the year. Harvard is closing its campus and considering whether to cancel or postpone commencement services. Seattle has closed its public schools.

The same abundance of caution is forcing cancellation or rescheduling of some food safety events, too. The Food Safety Website events calendar is being updated as information comes in about the status of government, academic and industry events. We’ve reached out to the organizers of those events scheduled for the first half of 2020 and asked them to let us know their plans.

Although not everyone has replied, we’ve learned that the Food Safety Summit set for  May 4-7 outside Chicago is still scheduled. The summit organizers at BNP Media said the 22nd annual event will go on at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL. All educational offerings, networking events and exhibit hall activities are happening as scheduled. 

The leaders of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), who cancelled the group’s European Symposium set for April 7-9 in Munich, are still planning to proceed with the IAFP Annual Meeting on Aug. 2-5 in Cleveland, OH. 

“IAFP remains committed to moving forward responsibly with planning for IAFP 2020 over the dates of August 2-5 in Cleveland, Ohio. Based on information currently available, the meeting will take place as scheduled,” according to a statement released by the international organization.

The Institute of Food Technologists leaders say “this is a complicated and evolving situation that IFT continues to monitor closely.” At this time IFT leadership is still planning to go ahead with their annual event and food expo scheduled for July 12-15 in Chicago. 

“. . . we will maintain an open dialogue with our community and provide updates via the IFT20 website, the IFT20 exhibitor newsletter, social media, and dedicated emails to registrants and IFT community members,” according to the organization’s statement.

Organizers of these events and other food safety events are monitoring the spread of the coronavirus and will change their plans based on information from federal, state and local officials. Before you making travel plans, potential attendees are encouraged to contact individual organizations and keep an eye on the Food Safety Website Events Calendar.

Some websites that have information for travelers include:

• U.S.. Travel Association
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• World Health Organization

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The Minister of Health and Families, Jesús Aguirre, opened the International Symposium on the Andalusian Listeriosis outbreak that sickened more than 200 people.

The listeriosis alert was started in mid-August and ended by mid-October. In those two months, the outbreak from “La Mecha” brand chilled roasted pork meat produced by Magrudis caused three deaths in elderly people and five abortions.

International involvement
Attendees heard about food safety, epidemiological surveillance, clinical management and healthcare organization, and microbiological diagnosis: identification and molecular typing.

A plenary session and two workshops covered the management of information and perspective of the consumer and patient.

The outbreak was reported by Spanish authorities to the World Health Organization, via the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) in late August.

In November, an operation named Monocy, was led by the Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) with Europol’s support in connection with the outbreak. Six people were arrested and two people held in provincial detention without bail.

An investigation found individuals were aware in December 2018 that some food products contained Listeria but they did not inform authorities and continued to sell it. A total of 17 tons of food contaminated with Listeria was seized and incinerated in Cadiz, Spain.

France and Austria share Listeria expertise
The event, organized by the Ministry of Health and Families, involved Johanna Takkinen of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and Marta Garcia Perez from the Agencia Española de Consumo, Seguridad alimentaria y Nutrición (AESAN).

Marc Lecuit of Pasteur Institute in France spoke about the French experience of Listeria infections and Valentina Rizzi of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was part of a roundtable debate.

Werner Ruppitsch, from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) spoke about typing tools for Listeria monocytogenes and Javier Tellechea, from DG Sante of the European Commission, helped to conclude the conference.

Jordi Castilla, from FACUA Andalucía, was involved in the symposium. The consumer group has a legal team representing some victims of the outbreak.

A total of 27 people are included in the case while 11 other cases could be added. Nine people have been rejected as the judge considered the relationship with Magrudis products and the Listeria was not proven. The judge of the Court of Instruction No. 10 of Seville, Pilar Ordóñez, is investigating the listeriosis outbreak.

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The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) recognizes students are the future leaders in food safety.

The scholarship will be awarded to two students living in Europe and enrolled full-time in a college or university food safety degree program in the region. Previous recipients are not eligible to apply.

Applications will be accepted electronically through Jan. 7, 2020, from IAFP student members.

The selection committee’s decision will be communicated to all applicants by Feb. 5, 2020, and the scholarship recipients will be formally recognized during the IAFP European Symposium on Food Safety.

Maria Gkerekous from the Agricultural University of Athens in Greece and Yifan Zhang of ETH Zurich in Switzerland received the 2019 European Symposium Student Travel Scholarship.

The deadline for individuals to submit an abstract proposal for presentation during the IAFP European Symposium on Food Safety is Jan. 14 with an acceptance or rejection notification by Feb. 4, 2020.

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Experts from scientific institutions, food regulatory authorities and businesses discussed zoonoses and food safety during a symposium at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) on Nov. 4 and 5.

The two-day event looked at zoonotic agents, their occurrence and transmission along the food chain, and other aspects of food safety. Presenters came from the BfR, Robert Koch-Institut, Animal and Plant Health Agency in the United Kingdom, and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

Foodborne pathogens and viruses
Campylobacter in raw milk, Salmonella in eggs or Listeria in ready-to-eat foods often cause outbreaks and the latter usually includes an above-average number of deaths, according to information presented at the meeting.

Campylobacter causes the most bacterial foodborne infections in Germany, with about 70,000 cases a year, especially in infants and young adults. Outbreaks in recent years have often involved school children who consumed raw milk on trips to a farm or from milk vending machines.

One of the largest outbreaks in 2018 was also discussed at the meeting. It included 191 cases in several federal states and was caused by Salmonella enteritidis complex type (CT) 1734. The probable vehicle of infection was barn eggs. Results of molecular typing of pathogen isolates were used to discover the association with 24 smaller outbreaks. Strategies to reduce Salmonella in pork were also discussed.

German officials are still investigating a Listeria outbreak identified last year by whole genome sequencing with 37 people involved from 12 states. Chilled sausages from Wilke Waldecker Fleisch- und Wurstwaren are the suspected source.

Viruses in food are also becoming more of a focus and the number of hepatitis E infections in humans has increased significantly in recent years, mainly caused by insufficiently cooked liver and raw sausages.

Attendees also heard about a hepatitis A outbreak last year affecting almost 40 people traced to dates from Morocco.

BfR has developed FoodChain-Lab, which is open-source software for trace-back and trace-forward analysis in foodborne disease outbreak investigations. Work was started during the outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O104:H4 in Germany in 2011.

Bacillus cereus opinion
Meanwhile, the BfR has analyzed existing literature and its own research on bacterial strains from the Bacillus cereus group. This group includes 18 closely related species that are hard to distinguish from each other.

The agency found that it is likely each presumptive Bacillus cereus strain is able to form toxins, although the amounts vary. These toxins may cause gastrointestinal diseases. One type of disease is characterized by vomiting and the other is accompanied by diarrhea. Both can affect people of all ages, are not infectious and rarely last longer than 24 hours. It is very rare for them to become severe.

Between 2009 and 2015, two to six foodborne outbreaks per year caused by Bacillus cereus were reported by authorities in the German federal states.

The opinion provides information about health risks from bacteria in the Bacillus cereus group in foods and lists preventative measures, to provide official food monitoring authorities in Germany with a basis for assessing contaminated items.

Surviving forms of these bacteria, known as spores, can be transferred to food via soil particles or dust, and survive extreme conditions such as heat or dehydration for long periods. Initial contamination of food with spores is often very low. However, they can germinate as a result of improper storage, and bacteria can multiply in food.

Heat treatments, such as cooking or pasteurization, kill bacterial cells but individual spores survive and germinate. Fast and sufficient cooling to less than 7 degrees C (45 degrees F) and/or heat maintenance to more than 65 degrees C (149 degrees F) is necessary after meals have been treated with heat, to stop germination of spores and multiplication of bacteria.

Warm dishes and drinks containing milk should be kept heated at temperatures above 65 degrees C, or cooled to below 7 degrees C within a few hours. Leftovers of cooked dishes should be stored in the refrigerator and consumed within two to three days, according to the BfR.

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